Eduardo Duhalde

Eduardo Duhalde (5 October 1941-) was interim President of Argentina from 2 January 2002 to 25 May 2003, succeeding Adolfo Rodriguez Saa and preceding Nestor Kirchner. He was the founder of the conservative Federal Peronism faction of the Justicialist Party.

Biography
Eduardo Alberto Duhalde was born in Lomas de Zamora, Argentina on 5 October 1941, and he became a lawyer in 1970 and was elected to the Buenos Aires legislature a year later. He became a leader of a local Justicialist Party branch and served as Intendant of Lomas de Zamora from 1974 to 1976, when he was ousted from office by the military coup. He worked as a real estate broker during the following years, but he returned to serve as Intendant from 1983 to 1987 following the restoration of democratic rule. He went on to serve in the Chamber of Deputies from 1987 to 1989, when he was elected Vice President under President Carlos Menem, a fellow conservative Peronist. He resigned in 1991 to serve as Governor of Buenos Aires from 1991 to 1999, and he also served as a Senator from 2001 to 2002. In January 2002, following the resignations of Presidents Fernando de la Rua and Adolfo Rodriguez Saa in December 2001, Duhalde was chosen to serve as interim President. He oversaw a huge currency devaluation and the increase of the exchange rate to create a gradual economic recovery, and, when a fresh presidential election was held in 2003, Duhalde's support was vital in electing the left-wing Peronist Nestor Kirchner to office. However, political disputes between the two men led to them becoming rivals, and Duhalde founded the conservative "Federal Peronism" faction of the party to oppose Kirchner's populist Front for Victory.